Those interested in promoting quality caregiving for infants and toddlers should consider several key issues. These issues concern the content of procedures and rules of the caregiving facility, staff selection procedures, the role of the environment in promoting quality care, optimal curriculum for staff training, the adequacy of group care for…

The results obtained by researchers interested in the speech-time relationship indicate that the sequential organization through time of speech sounds necessary for communication requires a universal "grammar" consisting of vowel and consonant sequences and an awareness of the duration experienced in that process, as well as the memory…

One pathway through which second order effects proceed is "social referencing," a process in which the individual utilizes another's interpretation when appraising a situation. This phenomenon is well identified in adults and older children. While it had not been studied in infancy, there are good indications that the necessary cognitive…

The preference of the infant for mother versus father as an attachment figure and as a secure base for exploration is examined in this study. Subjects were fifteen 15-month-old infants whose mothers were their primary caregiver. The Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure was modified to permit both parents' simultaneous presence during separation…

The author reviews the literature on infant behaviors in relation to the psycholosocial development patterns of gifted children during the first five years of life. Among the milestones discussed are infant crying, smiling, language development, social cognition, and social curiosity. It is pointed out that research data indicates gifted children…

The report of the World Health Organization working group which met in February, 1979, to consider issues in detection of handicap in children contains sections on major problems, early detection programs, approaches, administrative issues, personnel, research, conclusions, and recommendations. Major problems include the definition of handicap and…

The Pediatric Language Clinic Program in Blount County, Tennessee, serving 36 to 54 communicatvely handicapped children (0 to 5 years old) is described. The program stresses intensive habilitation with groups of two to five parents and children in one hour sessions one to four times a week. The program encourages maximum parental involvement; is…

The authors address some of the issues and concerns surrounding the provision of early educational intervention with handicapped Black infants from low socioeconomic families. Problems in providing early intervention services for this population are seen to lie in three major areas--identification and diagnosis of potentially handicapping…

The document contains the final report of the HIP (Hearing and Speech Agency Infant Parent) Project, a program which provided 19 communicatively handicapped children (0-5 years old) with a home-center based language program. Sections focus on the direct and supplementary services for children (including a description of the project population and…

The purpose of this study was to survey the agencies and individuals presently conducting infant/toddler development (ITD) programs in the Los Angeles County area to determine whether the agencies were operated by public or private organizations; the educational background of the individuals staffing these programs and the respondents'…

This manual presents guidelines for starting and running a child restraint rental program to provide car seats and safety belts. Briefly discussed are reasons for starting a child restraint loan program, how such a program works, and information on similar programs. Issues of staffing, space needs, supplies, and equipment are addressed and…

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable instrument for observing the behaviors of caregivers in infant day care centers. Identification of custodial and developmental tasks of infant caregivers was accomplished by a review of the relevant literature, narrative recordings of infant caregivers, and verification of the tasks by a panel of…

The major hypothesis of the present study is that interest and competence in interacting with age-mates emerges in two-year-olds out of the process of defining self as separate from other in the context of the mother-child bond during the first two years. Seventy-eight two-year-old boys were administered four measures of self-definition and 40…

The primary purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of infant test scores, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scores, socioeconomic factors and maternal IQ as predictors of children's mental test performance. Additional purposes were to (1) determine the extent to which socioeconomic factors and maternal…

This paper reviews observational studies of infant-environment interaction during the first year of life. First, the utility of ecological and ethological perspectives for the assessment of organism-environment interactions is explored. Second, the observational research is categorized and discussed along methodological lines in terms of variable…